The Tennessee Supreme Court upheld the state law capping Metro Council at 20 voting members, half its size today. Council leaders meet next week on how to comply.
Nashville’s Metro Council will have to be cut in half. The Tennessee Supreme Court on Monday upheld a 2023 state law that caps a metropolitan council at 20 voting members. Nashville’s council has 40.
Vice Mayor Angie Henderson, who presides over the council, confirmed the ruling in a joint statement on Monday with council member Clay Capp, who chairs the Charter Revision Committee. The case is Metro v. Lee, docket No. M2024-01182-SC-R11-CV. The court’s majority opinion is posted on the state courts’ website.
“This is a somber day for democracy in Tennessee,” Henderson said.
“The State Constitution should protect us from this attack on our Charter,” Capp said.
What the law says
The General Assembly passed the law in 2023 and amended it in 2026. It is now section 7-1-113 of the Tennessee Code. Its key points:
- The cap: “the membership of a metropolitan council must not exceed twenty (20) voting members,” whatever a metro charter says.
- How Metro gets there: a council that has to shrink passes the legislation needed to comply by resolution. A majority of members present and voting decides it.
- Later changes: voters can still change the council’s size through a charter amendment, but never above 20.
The council today
The council has 35 district members and five members elected at-large, according to the Metro Council Office. The vice mayor presides. The office lists the current roster as serving 2023 to 2027.
Neither the statement nor the statute sets out how 20 seats would be drawn. That includes how many would be districts, whether any at-large seats would survive and when the change would take effect. Those are the questions council leaders say they will now take up.
What happens next
Henderson and Capp said three bodies will “closely review” the ruling: the Council Office’s Legislative Services Division, the Metro Legal Department and the council itself.
- Next week: the Charter Revision Committee meets “to start a robust discussion,” Capp said. No date had been posted by Monday evening.
- After that: Henderson and Capp will call a special committee meeting in the Council Chamber, open to all 40 members.
- Thursday, Nov. 5: the full council holds its regular meeting at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, moved from Tuesday because of the election.
“We will have to carefully read and evaluate what the decision says,” Capp said.
The Mayor’s Office had posted no statement on its news page by Monday evening.
What it means for you
- Your council member stays in office for now. Nothing in the statement changes who represents your district this week.
- Your district will probably get bigger. Twenty or fewer seats for a county of about 715,000 people, the figure Henderson and Capp used, means each member would answer to far more residents than today.
- Watch the Charter Revision Committee. Its meetings are public and listed on the council’s calendar and on Legistar. Find your current member in the council roster.
- More on city hall: our who to call at City Hall guide and the property taxes page.
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